Benchmark Issues Positive Forecast for Chesapeake Energy (NASDAQ:EXE) Stock Price

Chesapeake Energy (NASDAQ:EXE) had its price target raised by Benchmark from $93.00 to $112.00 in a report published on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a buy rating on the stock.

EXE has been the subject of a number of other reports. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $116.00 price target on shares of Chesapeake Energy in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Piper Sandler increased their price target on shares of Chesapeake Energy from $96.00 to $101.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, March 6th. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Chesapeake Energy from $119.00 to $133.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Barclays decreased their price objective on shares of Chesapeake Energy from $117.00 to $115.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, March 18th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on Chesapeake Energy in a research report on Friday, January 31st. They set a “buy” rating and a $121.00 target price on the stock. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $122.35.

Chesapeake Energy Price Performance

EXE stock opened at $110.55 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $25.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 68.24 and a beta of 0.53. Chesapeake Energy has a 12 month low of $81.66 and a 12 month high of $114.03. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $104.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a current ratio of 2.00 and a quick ratio of 2.00.

Chesapeake Energy (NASDAQ:EXE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The company reported $0.55 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $2 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.82 billion. Chesapeake Energy had a net margin of 6.07% and a return on equity of 2.74%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Chesapeake Energy will post 1.33 earnings per share for the current year.

Chesapeake Energy Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 27th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 11th were paid a $0.575 dividend. This represents a $2.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.08%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 11th. Chesapeake Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -55.83%.

Insider Activity

In other Chesapeake Energy news, CEO Domenic J. Dell’osso, Jr. acquired 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 5th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $99.50 per share, for a total transaction of $248,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 107,845 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,730,577.50. The trade was a 2.37 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Corporate insiders own 58.00% of the company’s stock.

About Chesapeake Energy

Expand Energy Corporation is an independent natural gas producer principally in the United States. Expand Energy Corporation, formerly known as Chesapeake Energy Corporation, is based in OKLAHOMA CITY.